Water levels in Lake Erie are near record levels following a series of heavy rains this spring.

The high water is causing flooding and erosion and has forced the cancellation of boating events because docks are submerged, said Jason Wintermute, water management supervisor with the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority.

Water levels in the lake are close to a 30-year high, set in 1986, he said.

“We’re within 20 centimetres of those levels,” Wintermute said.

For April, the average was about 175 metres above sea level.

During a four-week period early this spring, up to double the normal 80 millimetres of rain fell in the London region.

“The amount of water coming down from Lake Huron (also is) a large factor,” Wintermute said. “Lake St. Clair is also really high.”

The primary concern of the

conservation authority is those residents who live next to the lake. When water levels were low, many of those people had beaches in front of their homes.

“Now that lake levels are up, those beaches are submerged or wave action, because of the higher lake levels, has eroded away those beaches,” Wintermute said.

Low-lying roads in Chatham-Kent have experienced flooding because the waves hit the break walls with more force. Not only have the waves damaged break walls, they have caused water to spray onto adjacent properties.

Erie Shore Drive in Chatham-Kent was closed on May 2 after heavy winds pushed water onto properties and across the road.

The high water threatens beaches that are usually protected by bluffs, Wintermute said.

“There are high bluff stretches throughout Chatham-Kent and Elgin County as well . . . Some of those high bluffs also had beaches in front of them that kind of protected them from wave action, and now that those are submerged, the waves can more directly impact . . . the bluff and cause erosion faster.”

Wintermute said he’s heard some boating events on Lake Erie have had to be cancelled because the docks are submerged.

“There are other concerns about things like that where people may have put in infrastructure or docks or other amenities along the lake shore that now aren’t really accessible because of the higher water levels,” Wintermute said.

The algae blooms that are taking over Lake Erie also are affected by the rainfall.

“What tends to create the larger algae bloom years is when more water comes off the land. So, if we get more rain, then we have more water running off into the rivers and creeks and that makes it into the lakes with more nutrients that are coming off of the land,” Wintermute said.